Palermo, the Magna Grecia Foundation carried out an in-depth study on the theme of mafias in the digital age.

The Italian regulatory vacuum pertaining to this issue was also analysed. Among the esteemed speakers was Francesco Paolo Sisto, Deputy Minister of Justice.

FMG will present a report on cybercrime in April 2024 at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Palermo, 5 December - The Magna Grecia Foundation organized a momentous open discussion and debate at the Giardini del Massimo in Palermo on the increasingly significant use that organized crime makes of new technologies and on how Italy is dealing with this phenomenon at a regulatory level.

An event that stems from the Foundation's research activities and in particular from the "First Report on Mafias in the Digital Age" presented in the presence of prosecutor Nicola Gratteri to the Chamber of Deputies in May.

The first session of the conference, entitled "Organized crime in the internet age" was moderated by journalist Fabrizio Frullani, Deputy Director of Tg2.

In his opening remarks, the President of FMG, Nino Foti, highlighted how "the results of the report we have been working on in the recent months provide an insight into the virtual world and how criminal organizations communicate through new technologies. This meeting anticipates the preparation of a second, highly articulated report on cybercrime, which is currently in the works and will be presented at the UN Headquarters in New York in April 2024 ".

Subsequently, general Pasquale Angelosanto, former Commander of Carabinieri’s ROS (Special Operations Group), took the floor and spoke on the topic of "crypto telephony" explaining the evolutionary process that the mafias have undergone in recent years, which has led them to take on an entrepreneurial guise, as well as the projections that they have managed to develop abroad, assuming the organizational structure of a "criminal holding".

In particular, he explained that "crypto phones, which are devices replaced by components comparable to regular smartphones, are communication channels that police forces are unable to intercept. The central theme is represented by our ability to modernise both technologically, as well as from a new regulatory and legal framework standpoint. These are all elements that have to go hand in hand."

Antonio Nicaso, journalist, writer and researcher of mafia-type criminal phenomena, Professor at Queen's University of Canada, said that "Mafias are no longer as poorly competent as we had imagined them, they can actually function both online and offline and are able to operate at the heart of technological processes. Speed is the name of the game. They are fast and, unfortunately, the current legislation is struggling to keep up. They are transnational and, instead, our laws are governed by outdated concepts. Global problems require global remedies and, therefore, one of the objectives must be to eliminate regulatory asymmetries, that is, to avoid regulatory havens and technological drawbacks. Investigation protocols should be modernized and the technological competence of the investigative bodies should be improved."

Walter Rauti, Research Fellow at the SDA Bocconi NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) Lab and editor of the next report on Cyber-crime of the Magna Grecia Foundation, took a snapshot of the phenomenon by stating that "organized crime today, in the global world, acts in a more imperceptible way and is capable of merging financial and digital activities with traditional ones such as the control of the territory. Wanting to see organized crime through the same lenses that have been used for decades runs the risk of not showing today's reality, where crime is cunning and has very sophisticated growth prospects, being able to infiltrate itself without even resorting to corruption anymore. The mafias of the future will increasingly act on the privacy of individuals and we must be prepared for this type of risk".

Ranieri Razzante, Member of the AI Strategy Committee of the Prime Minister's Office, presented an overview of the regulatory framework and the anti-money laundering system currently in force.

"Concealment through the web," he commented, "has become a multiplier of money laundering and a law is needed to regulate this sector. The use of AI can be a further destabilizing factor where the punishability of possibly criminal AI behaviours is not yet conceivable even on the investigative side."

Marcello Ravveduto, Professor of Digital Public History at the Universities of Salerno, Modena and Reggio Emilia, who oversaw the report on mafias in the digital age for FMG, then expressed himself as follows:

"The report concerns cyber influence, i.e. the influence that mafias exert through social networks by building an area of consensus, intervening publicly in their own territory, occupying the virtual territory and showcasing the wealth of this world. We are witnessing a normalization of the mafia message, which becomes an integral part of the entertainment news flow on social media platforms. Mobsters portray themselves as successful entrepreneurs of a brand called mafia."

The second part of the conference dealt with the regulatory aspects related to mafias in the digital age, and in particular on the current legislative vacuum in Italy. The title of this second session was The world of the web, "legibus solutus"? and was moderated by journalist Elvira Terranova, head of service of the AdnKronos news agency.

The proceedings, which were introduced by MP Saverio Romano, Vice-President of the Magna Grecia Foundation, focused on FMG's research activities, stating that "there are no rules on the web. This is a place where a new global society is formed, and it's a space where anything can happen, and this phenomenon needs to be addressed on a global level. Mafias send signals, elaborate disvalues and communicate lifestyles and models that must be opposed for their harmfulness. In addition, from an economic point of view, organized crime uses the web to increase its turnover through money laundering operations or to transfer illegal capital. All this makes us realize how much new rules are needed."

Afterwards, Antonio Balsamo, Deputy Attorney General of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, former President of the Court of Palermo, highlighted "the need for a modernizing reform based on developments in technology, especially focused on encrypted messages, as well as the need to fill the lack of regulation of the acquisition of evidence in relation to new technologies".

Giuseppe Di Cesare, Deputy Secretary General of the Fondazione Sicilia and professor of criminal procedure, spoke on the future of electronic evidence, considering the legislative changes and the phases of acquisition of evidence and its subsequent admissibility.

Francesco Greco, President of the National Bar Council, focused on Artificial Intelligence "which must be circumscribed. It is an extraordinary tool that provides great support, but it can be used by organized crime as a means of knowledge and it is essential to find tools to regulate it immediately, since it is ungovernable.  A lot of work is being done on this issue at the European level, but it is constantly evolving."

Senator Francesco Paolo Sisto, Deputy Minister of Justice, took part in the discussion remotely, stating that "if there is illicit conduct in the world of the web, it must be prosecuted as in the real world. There is no shielding and adequate safeguards must be found within the virtual world. In the dark web we are facing a dark side, even if accessing it is not a crime in itself, there is still the urgency of the legislator's intervention for an adjustment". On the risks of AI, Deputy Minister Sisto added that "there are obvious risks of creating misleading messages and it is necessary to intervene to establish the right balance between all the elements that must ensure due process".

Antonio Baldassarre, President Emeritus of the Constitutional Court, said that "public authorities are struggling to combat this type of criminal activity and greater integration is needed from the West, Europe, the United States and Canada; we need to mend the regulatory asymmetry that currently exists between the various countries".

Marzia Sabella, Deputy Public Prosecutor at the Court of Palermo, commented: "There is a lack of capacity to prosecute crimes on the web and it is necessary to invest in the technological preparation of investigative bodies, i.e. judicial police and judges. It's one thing to track and decode 'pizzini' (small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia uses for high-level communications), but finding encrypted chats is another."

The event ended with the remarks of Arthur Gajarsa, President of the Italian American Police Center and former Judge of the US Federal Court of Appeal, who focused on the regulatory profile of cybercrime and the need for the Italian and American governments to cooperate to fill this regulatory gap. "It is crucial to find new forms of cooperation to make the most of artificial intelligence," he said. "We need to study new technologies in order to understand them, respecting citizens' rights and their privacy, even if it will take several years and this is the most critical aspect."